Black bear uses its mouth to open door of biologist’s home and gets an earful

When your front door opens, who do you expect will enter the house?

Depending on your living arrangement, you might expect your partner, spouse, children, parents, siblings, or roommates to be on the other side of the door.

The person who opened the door at Susan Kehoe’s Highland Lakes home wasn’t there to greet her. 

Fortunately, Susan was standing right next to the door when the black bear opened Susan’s door with his mouth.

Using a calm, soothing voice, Susan told the bear to leave and closed the door behind him without any harm being done.

Susan told Inside Edition that people can tell by the tone of your voice. “For example, if I say, ‘Oh, what a good boy,’ or ‘Stop it!’ They can tell.”

Susan happens to be an expert.

Susan has also spent years studying and gathering data on black bears during her career as a biologist. 

So when the black bear opened her door, she knew what to do.

Using a soothing, soft voice, Susan instructed the black bear to close the door. “Close the door, sweetie. Good boy.”

At first, it looked like the black bear didn’t understand what she was saying.

His front paw touched the rug by the door shortly after he opened the door.

Susan had to repeat what she said several times to make sure the black bear heard her.

And he did.

As the black bear stepped back, he grabbed the doorknob with his mouth and closed it.

He didn’t fully close it so Susan knew he was going to try to open it again.

“You’re going to open it again, aren’t you?” Susan asked the bear. “Close the door, you little stinker.”

She kept encouraging him to close the door all the way with her very calming voice.

Black bears are common in Susan’s area, and this particular bear paid her a visit a few months ago as well.

This bear was right outside Susan’s front door. She spoke calmly to him in an attempt to drive him away, then opened her front door again.

A bear learned how to close my front door from Susan’s YouTube video of the first visit. “Bears are smart! This bear learned to close the door,” she wrote.

This explains why, besides her job, Susan wasn’t shocked or scared at the sight of a black bear entering her home.

When you discover your front door has been opened by a bear, what would you do?

There is no doubt that most people would flee or attack the bear if they saw it.

This video is a good example of what can be done in situations involving black bears.

It’s good to learn more about black bears from people like Susan, even if not every bear is like this one.